Transmission of data using a transmission system is typically conceptualized as a one-way transfer of data or information from a transmitting end, or transmitter, to a receiving end, or receiver. In radio frequency ("RF") transmission systems that utilize amplitude modulation ("AM") techniques to transmit data or information, an audio signal containing the data is used to modulate the amplitude of an RF carrier signal, wherein the data is contained in the side-band(s) of the signal created by the modulation technique. As is well known in the art, the side-band(s) comprises one or both the sum and difference of the carrier and data energy. A transmission system such as that described above is illustrated in FIG. 1.
As illustrated in FIG. 2, two-way, or bi-directional, simultaneous transmission is typically accomplished through the use of two carriers at different frequencies. Current technology enables either direction of transmission on a single carrier frequency, but not both directions at the same time.
Because individual carriers must be used for the transmission of amplitude modulated data, two carriers and their associated side-bands must be employed for the simultaneous transmission of two channels of data. The primary disadvantage associated with this technique is that it requires two transmissions, each occupying a specific amount of bandwidth based on the bandwidth of the data being processed to accomplish simultaneous bi-directional data transmission.
Therefore, what is needed is a technique for facilitating the simultaneous bi-directional transmission data using a single carrier.